_{Artist of the Week} 15 Qs for Rachel Krehm

When was your first singing lesson (and with whom)? What/who inspired you to sing? 
I owe my journey singing to a few very important teachers. I started piano lessons at the Royal Conservatory in Toronto when I was five or six years old. I liked music but was a lazy piano student. My piano teacher Aino Waldin was this amazing Estonian lady – in fact, if you know the name Lucas Waldin (Canadian conductor), he is her grandson! Mrs. Waldin definitely knew that I liked to sing and I must have done some humming or singing along with piano, because she was certainly someone who encouraged me to sing early on. While I was never the diligent piano student she deserved, she always encouraged my musical endeavours, and I owe a sense of striving for musical tone and phrase to her.

One day when I was around 12 years old, the singing teacher who the studio next to Mrs. Waldin’s heard me singing in the hall and said that I should take a lesson with her. That was Donna Sherman. Those in Toronto will recognize the name as someone who taught so many young singers and those at the Glenn Gould School. My audition for Donna Sherman at 12 years old was bringing her “Villanelle” from Les Nuits d’été by Berlioz. She was both shocked and horrified. Why was a 12-year-old singing this song? But I got all the notes! From there Donna Sherman was an enormous champion of mine. She trained me so well to go onto McGill. I did a ton of festivals, she was fastidious in teaching her students how to prepare binders for pianists, how to mark music, how to learn repetoire and more. She encouraged me to perform in many competitions and advised on what to wear and what make-up to use, and even took me to get my colours done. I am an autumn. She was so invested in her students. I miss both Donna Sherman and Aino Waldin very much as they were so important in my formative musical training as a child and teenager.

Favourite place?
Laughing with friends. It doesn’t matter where it is.

Coffee or tea?
Coffee. I joke that coffee is what makes me a nice person. But seriously, you don’t want to see me uncaffeinated.

What was the first opera you ever saw?
When I was about six, my mom was volunteering for one of Opera Atelier’s first productions of The Magic Flute. My family went to see the show. I think us 90s kids will remember that amazing tape of Magic Fantasy – A Journey Through The Magic Flute which was one of my favourite things to listen to. I also remember my dad was really excited to take me to an opera and he sat me down and told me that we were going to an opera and that the music would be similar to Magic Fantasy, but that the story was a little different and he warned me that it would be in German and that I might not understand the words. I vividly remember saying to him “Oh Daddy, we are in Toronto, they will sing in English.” So of course at the show I remember being mesmerized by what was on stage, but I also remember telling my dad “See? It is in English.”

What’s your ancestry?
My dad’s side of the family are Jews from outside of Odessa. My mom’s family is German and Dutch. I know, no Scottish blood, even though I have red curly hair!

Are there more musicians in your family? If yes, who and what do they play/sing?
There are musicians on both sides of my family. My dad’s aunt was a pretty prolific concert pianist named Ida Krehm. My grandfather played violin, my dad plays clarinet. My mom was an Orff teacher and played harpsichord and recorder, and has been focusing on jazz piano for a long time now. My sister, Elizabeth, who passed away (and who Little Sister is based on in Come Closer) was a much better musician than I was as kids. Both piano and violin came really easily for her and she was also in a steel drum band through her elementary school that won a lot of awards. The reason that violin was chosen for the ensemble of Come Closer was to represent Little Sister. Many of the violin themes in the opera are based around the character of Little Sister.

Are you a cat person or dog person?
Cat person. It is so much more satisfying to win the love of a cat, because it isn’t a given! They are also just so hilarious and weird.

What nickname do your friends call you and why?
Rakel. Pronounced Rackllll. Really it is just a couple of friends from undergrad. I don’t remember how it started. But it was purposely trying to make my name as ugly sounding as possible.

Do you enjoy cooking? If yes, what is your best dish?
I love cooking! I like to make lots of things but I think my matzoh ball soup with kosher chicken broth is up there. Thank you to my non-Jewish mother for getting the recipe from her Jewish best friend’s Uncle Max!

What is the first thing you would do if you won the lottery?
Start an endowment fund for Opera 5 to ensure a solid base for operating expenses and to continue the Portfolio Artist Internship.

What’s the biggest risk you’ve taken for a production?
Writing an opera based about my experience, singing a role in it, and being immersed in something so incredibly vulnerable. I do hope that anyone in Toronto will come out and see Come Closer as part of the Toronto Opera Festival, June 12-21 at Factory Theatre.

Does singing help keep you young?
Sure. Anything that can spark your imagination will keep you young. But really nothing beats laughing for keeping you young!

Are you a perfectionist?
Who isn’t? I think as artists, we all struggle with perfectionism and letting it make you strive for constantly being better while not letting it totally destroy you or cause nerves or terrible performances. It is a constant moving target and trying to learn from it and be zen about it, or blur the perfectionism in the moments when you need to be in the moment and perform is a constantly interesting learning tool for performing.

What does success look like to you?
I don’t love the word “success.” I try to think more now about artistic fulfilment. When I feel proud of the work I am creating and performing, that is what matters most to me. The performance is really only part of the process. But the whole process, especially when you get to live with a work from the initial idea, through the creation and workshopping process to production is all fascinating. You get to make the whole work come to life and collaborate with other artists, have your artistic potential blossom beyond the individual potential from each artist… that is what is really exciting, what keeps me going, and wanting to create more!